This could have been a bad idea, but I'm not sure it was any worse than it would have been otherwise; I converted our daughter's bed to a toddler bed today. Here's the thing, she's thirteen-months-old, and that would be, in my general opinion, far too early to give her the freedom of a toddler bed. But there are other factors, okay, one other factor, her brother.
He could climb out of his bed some time ago, but he didn't climb out. I'm not sure why, but even though he had the capability, he didn't take advantage of it. Until just recently. Once we realized there was no keeping him in his bed, it didn't make sense to not change over his crib to a toddler bed. "There's really no sense in punishing him by asking him to land on his head and then not be able to get back into his crib if we had an alternative," I thought.
The problem arises in that he and his sister share the same room. In general, they sleep very well together, even if one is wailing or crying or not sleeping, if the other is tired, then that sibling just goes off to sleep. We have a new plan to put a gate at the door to their room and shut the door to their play room until my son is asleep. Later in the night when we check on them, we open the door to the playroom so he can occupy himself when he wakes up. And this has worked.
So far, he gets up and plays nicely until it's time to eat. But he doesn't leave his sister alone. He wants her to play with him so he shoves things into her crib through the slats. We had to remove a chair because he was using it to climb into her crib; and on top of that, she's mad because she wants to be out and playing too.
So today, as a test, I converted her crib to the same toddler bed as his. She has loved his toddler bed. She's all about climbing and she has had more fun climbing in and out of his toddler bed since we converted it. Now she can climb in and out of her bed. But will this change work out?
So far, it's been interesting. She is so very excited to be able to climb in and out of the bed that it's been hard to go to sleep. Eventually for her morning nap she did fall asleep. This afternoon they were both tired. While her brother finished his bath I took her up to bed and expected her to fall straight to sleep. No such luck. She was bed shopping. For ten minutes she went from one bed to the other, checking out the mattress, lying down, getting back up, going back to the other bed, and most notably, not sleeping.
When her brother came up to have a nap he was delighted and wanted to help her in her bed selection pursuits. He brought blankets and pillows from bed to bed. He tried to get into the bed with her, he tried to jump on her head (he does that from time to time) and he definitely, without a doubt, wasn't about to go to sleep either. It was a funny little nap dance to watch.
Eventually we got them both up. She hasn't napped yet and it's approaching bed time. He, on the other hand, fell asleep on the sofa sitting up and hasn't woken up yet for dinner. I have confidence they'll sleep--perhaps together, perhaps separately. They seem to like each other (when he's not jumping up and down on her head) and I have high hopes they will settle down into a routine soon.
The Big Boy Update: While all this was going on, the testing of the beds, moving of the blankets and pillows around, I came in to watch for a while. My son told me to, "lie down." He brought a blanket over to me as I was lying on the floor. He brought me a pillow. I tried to sit up, "No. Momma, lie down." I lie back down. I close my eyes, hoping they will settle down soon. Then I feel something smashed on my mouth. Oh, he's brought me a pacifier, the final ingredient to a good nap. How sweet.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Crib converted to a toddler bed and I don't know how she'll fare tonight. Usually, once she's asleep she stays asleep through the night. We shall see how it goes. We have relatives in town so I'm hoping it goes well because I don't want them to leave early due to lack of sleep from two noisy babies playing across cribs in the middle of the night.
Fitness Update: We've had two failed run attempts resulting from work issues. Tomorrow morning we're trying to run again. Maybe the third time will be our lucky try. My neighbor and I haven't run in so long we're wondering if we've forgotten how.
Someone Once Said: Most people won’t learn even by experience. Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
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